Christine O'Donnell

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Christine O'Donnell, August 2011

Christine O'Donnell (born August 27, 1969 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) is an American politician . She is a member of the Republican Party and is considered a representative of the right-wing populist Tea Party movement .

Youth and education

Christine O'Donnell is of Irish-Italian descent. Daniel and Carole O'Donnell's daughter grew up with her five siblings in Moorestown , Burlington County , New Jersey . Her father worked temporarily as an actor in theater and television. After graduating from Moorestown High School in 1987, she began studying at Fairleigh Dickinson University , a private university in New Jersey. Originally they had intended to pursue a career as a theater actress and her studies with a B. A. complete.

During her studies (1991) , O'Donnell , who came from a liberal Roman Catholic family, joined evangelical Protestantism , which, according to her own statement, was the prerequisite for her later political activity.

In 1993 she attended her graduation ceremony, but was not given a diploma. O'Donnell later stated that she was denied graduation because she failed to pay her tuition fees. When she continued to fail to pay the outstanding amount, Fairleigh Dickinson University sued her for $ 4,823 in 1994 . The university's lawsuit was also granted in full. The relevant sum was paid in 2003. After O'Donnell had subsequently completed a course required for the B.A. in the summer of 2010, Fairleigh Dickinson University awarded her a B.A. in English literature (with a focus on communication).

Political career

Christine O'Donnell had been with the College Republicans , a division of Republicans in universities, since 1991 . In the presidential election campaign in 1992 she took part as a campaign assistant for George HW Bush in a leading position regarding the target group of young voters. In 1996 she was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in San Diego . Also in 1996 she founded the organization The Savior's Alliance for Lifting the Truth , of which she was chairman for many years. This association belongs to the chastity movement, calls for a ban on sex education in schools and advocates school prayer and the teaching of creationism in school lessons.

In 2006 O'Donnell applied for a nomination as a Republican candidate for the US Senate for the first time, but lost her party's primary . With 17.41% of the vote, it was far behind its internal party opponents Jan Ting (42.47%) and Michael D. Protack (40.12%). In the main election, which was won by the Democratic incumbent Tom Carper , she ran as a write-in candidate and got 4% of the vote. During the election campaign, she claimed, among other things, that homosexuals suffer from an identity disorder. In 2008 she was put up as a Republican candidate for Delaware's other seat in the US Senate. It was subject to the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden , who also ran as his party's vice-presidential candidate. O'Donnell got around 35% of the vote, Biden just under 65%.

Since Biden only held the Senate seat in the 111th Congress for a few days in January 2009 because of his election as Vice President, a by-election in November 2010 was necessary; in the meantime, Ted Kaufman was named senator. O'Donnell won the Delaware party primaries in September 2010 against Congressman and former Governor Mike Castle . She was supported by Sarah Palin . In November 2010 she ran in the US Senate election as a Republican candidate against Chris Coons , but could not prevail against him despite her popularity in the Tea Party movement. Her main campaign topic was the reversal of the 2010 healthcare reform . During the election campaign, her opponents had pointed out her earlier statements that she wanted to ban masturbation as it was a form of adultery and her admission that she had participated in witchcraft rituals at a young age. So she ran a commercial that began with the words: "I'm not a witch."

O'Donnell's political positions are characterized by the fact that she argues in favor of gun ownership, against abortion, against full legal equality for homosexuals, and tax policy conservatively (i.e. the lowest possible taxes). She rejects the theory of evolution because apes would no longer develop. Speaking on the Bill O'Reilly show , she voiced concerns that unspecified American research firms would breed hybrids between humans and animals and work on mice with fully functional human brains.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Christian Science Monitor September 15, 2010: Will GOP leaders take up, Christine O'Donnell for Senate '?
  2. ↑ The Christian Science Monitor September 16, 2010: Could Christine O'Donnell actually win in November?
  3. ^ A b c d Ginger Gibson: Delaware Politics. From Middle-Class New Jersey, moral activist Christine O'Donnell Knew 'God Was Calling' , in: The News Journal, October 10, 2010, accessed October 18, 2010.
  4. ↑ Daniel Libit: Joe Biden's other female foe , www.politico.com, October 4th 2008, accessed 18 September 2010
  5. ↑ Washington Post (Eng.)
  6. ^ Official election results at elections.delaware.gov, accessed on September 18, 2010
  7. Jump up ↑ Triumph of the Tea Party - Conservatives win US Republican primaries, SZ, September 16, 2010, p. 16.
  8. ↑ CBS News - Sarah Palin Endorses Christine O'Donnell.Retrieved September 18, 2010
  9. ↑ Congress elections on Spiegel Online , accessed on November 3, 2010
  10. ↑ Article in the Guardian about O'Donnell's election campaign (Eng.)
  11. ↑ Article in the Guardian about O'Donnell's election campaign (Eng.)
  12. ↑ USA: Anti-masturbation candidate wins in Delaware , TELEPOLIS, September 15, 2010.
  13. ↑ Huffingtonpost (Eng.)
  14. ↑ Washington Post (Eng.)
personal data
SURNAME O'Donnell, Christine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician (Republican Party)
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , USA